John Henry Newman Quotes & Sayings

“To live is to change, and to be perfect is to have changed often.”

“Growth is the only evidence of life.”

“A great memory does not make a mind, any more than a dictionary is a piece of literature.”

“Let us act on what we have, since we have not what we wish.”

“In this world no one rules by love; if you are but amiable, you are no hero; to be powerful, you must be strong, and to have dominion you must have a genius for organizing.”

“Evil has no substance of its own, but is only the defect, excess, perversion, or corruption of that which has substance.”

“It is almost the definition of a gentleman to say that he is one who never inflicts pain.”

“It is as absurd to argue men, as to torture them, into believing.”

“Nothing is more common than for men to think that because they are familiar with words they understand the ideas they stand for.”

“Virtue is its own reward, and brings with it the truest and highest pleasure; but if we cultivate it only for pleasure's sake, we are selfish, not religious, and will never gain the pleasure, because we can never have the virtue.”